End-of-Life Decisions and the Bureaucracy

North Carolina editorial roundup
If you're over 65 and want to consult with your doctor about which life-prolonging medical treatments you'd want or not want if you were incapacitated and dying, should Medicare pay your doctor for offering that medical advice? If you've ever watched a spouse, son or daughter struggle with decisions about what an aging, comatose or terminally ill patient would want — feeding tube? ventilator? resuscitation? — then you know the importance of the patient himself or herself thinking thr...

Obama's stealth end-of-life regulation: Palin's 'death panels' made Dems do it
"If you can't legislate it, enforce it," says Tucker Carlson, sitting in for Sean Hannity on Fox , as he slammed the Obama Administration for dishonesty - specifically  sneaking back into ObamaCare  what Sarah Palin labeled  the 'Death Panel's'" end-of-life planning. At that time, Sarah Palin warned of a slippery slope to euthanasia for the elderly, the sick and the disabled and America's response echoed Palin's "Not no, but hell no!".  Now it's back. As per the New York Time...

Obama Brings Back End of Life Counseling
When it was discovered that ObamaCare included funding for end of life counseling, Controversy erupted and that language had to be stripped from the bill Obama eventually signed. So, how is it that end of life counseling is now being funded by the Federal Government? Through Regulation, of course. The New York Times reported that this is the way President Obama will operate for the next two years. The final version of the Health Care Legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, a...

Backdoor Death Panels?
When the Health Care overhaul was stumbling its way through Congress early this year, Sarah Palin was excoriated by Democrats for suggesting that the nascent law included “Death Panels” for the elderly in order to save costs of treating the oldest and Most Expensive patients. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Palin wrote that Obama had asked Congress to create an independent Medicare Advisory Council--an unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. She p...

White House May Reintroduce 'Death Panels'
The Obama Administration has restored one of the most Controversial provisions of the new Health Care law. The New York Times reported the new policy will let the government pay doctors for end-of-life counseling. That counseling could include doctors discouraging patients from trying everything medically possible that might keep them alive. "The infamous Section 1233 is still alive and kicking," said Elizabeth Wickham, Executive Director of LifeTree, a pro-life Christian educational ministry....

Sneaking end-of-life consultations into Obamacare
Jae C. Hon/AP Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the term"Death Panels"famous during the debate over ObamaCare last year. A new Regulation has revived the debate. During the debate over ObamaCare last year, Controversy erupted over a Medicare provision related to end-of-life consultations with doctors. Following well-publicized criticism from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concerning government "death panels," the provision was promptly dropped. But now the New York Times reports that it has be...

Fox News Tries To Rehabilitate Palins Discredited Death Panels Smear
As The New York Times reported yesterday, the Obama Administration has enacted Medicare Regulations to include an end-of-life planning provision similar to one struck out of the Health Care Reform Bill after Sarah Palin “touched off a political storm over ‘Death Panels.’” Palin’s “death panels” accusation wasn’t just a lie, it was PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year for 2009. But good ol’ Fox News resuscitated the lie and gave it new life by j...

End-of-life counseling part of new Medicare policy
The New York Times reported over the weekend that a provision of Health Care reform Legislation that was abandoned after it became the focus of conservative outrage is making a return, this time as part of a new policy outlined in a Medicare Regulation. Voluntary counseling on end-of-life decisions was attacked by conservative pundits and politicians throughout the debate over Health Care reform, eventually labeled as “Death Panels.” The service would require Medicare to pay for end-...

Using Regulation Against The Will Of The People
Written into the Declaration of Independence is a simple imperative, “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Our nation was built on this concept, but the Obama Administration is using its power to write Regulation to circumvent the will of the people and advance its own agenda. Three recent examples of this over reach are shocking and all Americans should demand an end to the practice and a reversal of what has already been don

Republican Congressman-Elect: Obamacare Rationing Is Being Hidden From The Public
Over the holiday, when the nation was busy with friends, family and celebration, the Obama Administration quietly broke news of a new Regulation to implement a part of ObamaCare that Congress specifically did not authorize. Specifically, a provision that would have the government paying doctors to convince patients not to seek extraordinary end-of-life treatment. “The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it,” said Democrat Rep. Blumenauer from Oregon. Now Con...

Berwick Sets Up Death Panels By Fiat
"If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." -- Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Sarah Palin was right. John Boehner -- make that Speaker-elect of the House John Boehner -- was right. While Americans were busy celebrating with family and friends and presumably not paying attention to the news, the New York Times, in a story ironically dated Christmas Day -- a holiday celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace -- reported the foll...

Media amnesia on "death panels" myth
One of the most frustrating aspects of the media's coverage of politics is the way they treat deceptive factual claims. As I've often pointed out, these claims are often reported in a "he said," "she said" format that provides readers with no indication that the statement in question is misleading or false. And even when reporters do characterize these statements accurately, it rarely creates a lasting precedent within their news organization. Instead, these outlets typically suffer a sort of ...

An added hurdle for bureaucrats
When Scott Walker said he wants to see every Regulation prior to its unleashing - since, after Jan. 3, he'll be responsible for every Bureaucrat in the Executive Branch - his opponents sputtered that this was a power grab. Well, yes. It is a power grab identical to the moment when bus passengers realize the driver's slumped unconscious and someone's got to seize the wheel. And, of course, stomp on the brake: The power that the Governor-elect proposes grabbing is not taken away from any elected...

Top Ten Heritage Papers of 2010
Yesterday, we posted the Top Ten Heritage Charts of 2010. Today we bring you the Top Ten Heritage Papers of 2010. This list combines all non-multimedia publications including WebMemos, Backgrounders, Center for Data Analysis Reports, Legal Memorandums, and White Papers. The papers are sorted by pageviews with the 10th most popular chart on top, and the most popular chart at the bottom. 10. Why is America Exceptional? 9. Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth: Answering the ...

The future of health care in the Tampa Bay Area
Beginning on January 1, 2011 the effects of the initial policy implementations of the Health Care Reform Act will be felt by both physicians and their patients. In speaking with family physicians, general practitioners and specialists in the Tampa Bay area, many have decided that they will retire or find another job prior to January 1, 2013, when they must begin to confer with the government in deciding your care or course of treatment. With over thirty million people being added to the health c...

Yes, a power grab
Wisconsinites should be deeply skeptical of Governor-elect Scott Walker's proposal for the governor's office to approve all state rules. They should be equally leery of his plan to allow rules written by state agencies to be challenged in local Circuit Courts. Like the idea of Walker wielding such power? Now imagine the next guy - for whom you didn't vote - with the same powers. This makes no sense on a few other fronts. • Streamline rule making, sure. The process can be byzantine fo...

On Obamacare, and How to Defeat It
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Twitter roundup
BrendanNyhan Dec 28, 2010 at 1:01pm As predicted (https://j.mp/c9Fe3v), overemphasis on Obama staff as cause of/solution to structural political problems https://j.mp/gYxThi Blaming staff for structural problems - Brendan Nyhan Back in January, I predicted a rash of process-based explanations of President Obama's declining political fortunes in 2010: During the next eleven months, it will become increasingly obvious th... Obama's insular White House worries his allies - latimes.com Bren...

Texas blog roundup for the week of December 27
The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes Santa Claus was good to you as it delivers the last blog roundup for 2010. Bay Area Houston notices that Death Panels are starting in Jan. Off the Kuff took a look at the election contest that was filed in HD48. Harold at Letters From Texas told a little Christmas story from his childhood, to (unsuccessfully) prove that he’s not a scrooge. It seems the EPA and Big Gas agree on something: Hydraulic Fracturing causes gas to penetrate into the water zone...

CNS' Starr Misleads on Planned Parenthood, Abortion
CNS' Starr Misleads on Planned Parenthood, Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com Penny Starr -- hater of abortion and Planned Parenthood -- begins her Dec. 23 CNSNews.com article, headlined "Planned Parenthood's Federal Funding Rose to $363.2 Million in FY 2008-2009, Aborted 324,008 Unborn Children in 2008," like this: Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government Grants and contracts during its 2008-2009 Fiscal Year, according to the organization's annual report. That was up...

Quote of the Day 12-27-10
Without them, I wouldn’t be here today. It is their faithfulness and perseverance that help women face the truth of Abortion every day. ~ Former Planned Parenthood leader Abby Johnson , crediting loving pro-life sidewalk counselors with her conversion. Johnson has written a book, Unplanned : The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line , about her life inside and outside the Abortion industry. ...

Planned Parenthood Christmas message: "Your Generous Gift Can Make a Real Difference in SOMEONE'S LIFE"
Good grief: Actually they're right - your donation will END somebody's life, which qualifies as one heck of a difference. Is that not one of the more ghoulish Holiday themes you may have seen? This from baby butchers on around the season when we celebrate the birth of the most famous baby in history. And this from an organization that encourages women to wait and have an Abortion at a certain point in the Pregnancy so that they can turn around and sell fetus bodyparts for a profit. They cover u...

Going after abortion providers
The Washington Post today looks at the gradual and deliberate erosion of Roe in State Legislatures beginning in Nebraska where the speaker, Michael Flood, did whatever he could to shut down a specific Abortion provider. A long line of Supreme Court precedents seemed to stand in his way. But Flood believes that a 2007 decision offers hope for him and other State Legislators looking for ways to restrict abortion. Using that decision as a road map, this spring Flood wrote and won passage of legi...

Blumenthal aide's top job: Prepare the boss for a new world
WASHINGTON--In her job as Sen.-elect Richard Blumenthal's Chief of Staff, Laurie Rubiner says her first challenge right out of the box will be this: helping her new boss move from a world of Lawsuits and Subpoenas to one of Filibusters and gridlock. Blumenthal, a Democrat elected to succeed retiring Sen. Chris Dodd, has been a "take-charge, take-action" kind of politician who, in his two decades as Connecticut's Attorney General, is used to getting "quick results," she noted. "It's harder to d...

The ACLU's Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals
Monday, December 27, 2010 Ho, ho, ho! Just in time for Christmas, the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new salvo against people of faith. Even as billions around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, joyless, Abortion-obsessed secularists never take a holiday. On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic Hospitals in the U.S. to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of t...